Angels Ride Streak Past Chicago : Joyner’s Home Run Carries Team to Sweep of White Sox

Two games above .500 for the first time this season, the Angels are still struggling to cope with this sudden jolt to their systems. What, are they winning? Yes, they are, incredibly extending their latest winning streak to five games with Sunday’s 7-5 victory over the Chicago White Sox, completing their first-ever four-game sweep at Comiskey Park.

The Angels aren’t exactly shellshocked, but they are still getting re-acclimated to the business of winning baseball . It has been awhile. And Sunday afternoon, this recent embarrassment of riches had Mike Witt, the winning pitcher, and Cookie Rojas, the winning manager, all but falling over one another trying not to take credit for any of it.

“I just don’t want to get in these guys’ way,” said Witt, who pitched six-plus innings to raise his record to 8-10. “The way I’ve been pitching, that’s my thinking. I just want to stay out of the way and ride the wave.”

Rojas, 53-51 in his rookie season, also subscribes to the hang-10 approach.

“I haven’t done a damn thing all year,” Rojas said. “All I do is sit there, make out the lineup and put it on the wall.”

OK, then. So who’s responsible?

On this day, the fingers were pointed at:

--Wally Joyner. The Angel first baseman, finally reclaiming his power stroke as July melts into August, broke a 5-5 tie in the seventh inning with a two-run home run off Ricky Horton, his eighth homer of 1988 and his first against a left-handed pitcher.

--Devon White. The reluctant leadoff man continues to sizzle in that role, delivering three more hits, including his third infield single in two days.

--Greg Minton. The right-handed relief pitcher bailed out the Angels’ beleaguered bullpen--and Witt--with three hitless innings to wrap up his fifth save of the season and the Angels’ 19th victory of July.

That ties a club record, equaling that of the 1964 Angels, who went 19-12 in July. These Angels, however, went 19-8 to launch a resurgence that took them from seventh place in the American League West to third.

Too bad the calendar has to interrupt things.

“It’s not August yet,” Joyner said, glancing at his watch. “We’ve still got seven more hours.”

Tonight, the Angels open August in Seattle. Maybe a new month will bring on the old Angels, the ones who were buried in the standings for much of May and June. Maybe the striking of one more midnight will bring an end to the barrage of runs and the three-run rallies the Angels seem to pull out of their hip pockets.

No one yet has been able to get a handle on this team.

But for at least one more day, the rallies kept coming, with the Angels erasing another 3-0 deficit and turning it into another victory.

Witt, making his second start since his mid-month bout with back spasms, spent most of the first two innings bending over and watching White Sox hits. Chicago scored one run in the first inning on doubles by Steve Lyons and Dan Pasqua. The White Sox added two more in the second inning on three singles and a walk.

In the third inning, a bases-loaded wild pitch by Chicago starter Jack McDowell scored Darrell Miller and a sacrifice fly by Johnny Ray scored Dick Schofield. In the fourth inning, Jim Eppard hit a single, Thad Bosley reached base on an error, Jack Howell doubled to bring in one run and White hit a single to bring in two more.

From 0-3 to 5-3 in Comiskey Park, before you can say Ron Karkovice.

Witt protected the lead for one inning. In the bottom of the sixth, he surrendered leadoff singles to Dave Gallagher and threw two wild pitches. Guillen’s single drove home one run and Lyon’s sacrifice fly made it 5-5.

Tied game again? No problem, said the Angel hitters, who promptly went to work in the seventh, with White hitting a single, Ray getting a sacrifice and Joyner sending an 0-0 pitch by Horton (5-9) into the right-field seats.

Ahead, 7-5, Rojas tried to milk one more inning from Witt. He settled for two batters. When Witt opened the seventh by yielding singles to Pasqua and Mark Salas, Rojas summoned Minton from the bullpen to face Carlton Fisk.

The assignment?

“I had a funny feeling that if I got a ground ball out of him, there’d be a slight chance for a double play,” Minton deadpanned.

So Minton threw one pitch, some of that ugly off-speed stuff, and Fisk pounded it into the infield grass. Fisk is 40 years old and couldn’t run when he was 20.

Double play.

“That was the whole game for me,” Minton said. “One swing with Fisk and he can hit it out.”

But after this swing, Minton was on his way out of the inning. After walking Guillen, he went on to retire the last seven batters he faced.

“Minton did his job,” Rojas said. “He got the big double play on Fisk and he kept me from using (more of) the bullpen. Our bullpen’s kind of weak right now, but everybody I use has been doing the job.”

For that, Witt, who received his eighth victory despite surrendering 12 hits, was grateful.

“I keep thinking that one of these games, I’m going to turn the corner and be right where I used to be,” Witt said. “Today was not the game.”

Was the back still bothering him?

Witt shook his head.

“There was no problem,” he said. “I haven’t thrown well all year. I can’t say, all of the sudden, that it’s the back that’s doing it.”

Yet the Angels, in spite of an off-summer by their No. 1 starter, continue to make a run at respectability, if not first place.

There must be a reason--and Witt went so far as to even single out one.

“I think it’s what Cookie’s doing,” he said. “He having us hit-and-run, he’s letting us swing away when we have (pitchers) on the ropes. He hasn’t hindered us with the bats. He lets us go out and play baseball.”

What was that Rojas was saying about just filling out the lineup card? Is false modesty starting to run amok in the Angel dugout?

If so, the Angels will tell you it beats the false baseball that was running amok on American League fields for the first 2 1/2 months of the season.

Angels Notes

Greg Walker, the White Sox first baseman hospitalized Saturday after a seizure during batting practice, suffered a second seizure Sunday morning at Christ Hospital in nearby Oak Lawn. Walker was stabilized without further complications. Saturday, doctors reported that Walker had no history of seizures, but Sunday Walker’s mother told White Sox physicians that Walker had several such episodes until age 4. Further tests, including additional neurological examinations, are scheduled for Walker in the next few days. . . . Before the game, the White Sox also announced they were placing outfielder Ivan Calderon on the disabled list. Calderon will undergo shoulder surgery and will be sidelined for the rest of the season. Calderon leads the club in home runs with 14 and is second in RBIs with 35. His spot on the roster will be filled by infielder Kelly Paris, who was recalled Sunday from triple-A Vancouver.

According to certain Angels, the White Sox are better talkers than hitters. Chili Davis angrily jawed with Chicago shortstop Ozzie Guillen at second base in the seventh inning and Devon White waged a weekend-long war of words with Chicago third baseman Steve Lyons. “It started when he was getting on Donnie Moore (Saturday),” White said of Lyons. “He was ticked off about getting out. Like he’s a .500 hitter and is never supposed to make an out. Every at-bat, every play we make on him, he’s got to (complain) about it, like we’re not professionals and supposed to let the ball drop.” White made a running, shoestring catch of a Lyons’ line drive in the eighth inning, but failed to run down his first-inning double. “It seems to take me a while to loosen up my legs,” White said. “If Lyons hit that ball later in the game, I’d have had a better shot at it. I’m sure I would’ve dove for it, too.” Meanwhile, across the clubhouse, Davis was asked about his spat with Guillen. “Ozzie who?” Davis replied. “I told him to watch his lips, but he kept on talking.” For that reason, Davis took delight in the fifth-inning line drive he hit at Guillen. “That ball almost took off his lips,” Davis said with a grin. “I told him, ‘The next one will shut you up.’ ” The Angels and the White Sox are next scheduled to meet Friday at Anaheim, opening a four-game series with a twi-night doubleheader. “It’s going to be real interesting,” White said.

Greg Minton pitched three innings in Thursday night’s 7-6 Angel victory, meaning he was the Angels’ best-rested reliever going into Sunday’s game. “I warmed up at 3:15 (Saturday), then at 5:15 and again at 6,” Minton said. “Then Lach (pitching coach Marcel Lachemann) comes up to me today and says, ‘How do you feel?’ ” Minton laughed. “ ‘Well, Lach, I guess I’m the one who’s supposed to say I’m OK. This is my designated day, right?” Minton went on to pitch three scoreless innings with “no velocity at all. I was working with an 84 mile-an-hour fastball out there, so all I tried to do was keep it around the knees or lower.” . . . Baseball stadium connoisseur Davis, on Comiskey Park: “In this park, anything can happen. Guys can hit it out of here easy. Hell, I just flipped the ball (Saturday) and hit it into the . . . upper deck. I felt like . . . King Kong.”